2-NRLF 


PREPARATION  OF  THI  EARTH 


FOR  THE 


INTELLECfllAL  RACES. 


REESE  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Deceive J      (<p6l^^  , 
'ccessioiis  No.  (p  I  <*L£L  I .     C/JSN  A^). 


1 


V 

\      ,v>?r 
v.     y 


PREPARATION  OF  THE  EARTH 


INTELLECTUAL  RACES. 


preparation  ot  tjje  SEartf)  for  t&e  Xnteliectual 


A    LECTURE 


DELIVERED     AT     SACRAMENTO,     CALIFORNIA, 


APRIL  10,  1854, 


INVITATION    OP   THE   HOUSE   OF   ASSEMBLY. 


C.  F.  WINSLOW,  M.D. 

€SEUi 
OF  THE 
iVERSITY 
4 


BOSTON: 

CROSBY,  NICHOLS,  AND  COMPANY, 

111,  WASHINGTON  STREET. 

1854. 




Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18,54,  by 

CROSBY,  NICHOLS,  &  CO. 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


BOSTON: 
PRINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON, 

No.  22,  SCHOOL  STREET. 


HOUSE  OF  ASSEMBLY, 

March  30,  1854. 
DEAR  SIR, 

I  have  been  directed  by  the  Assembly  to  extend 
to  you  an  invitation  to  deliver  at  the  capital,  on  such  evening 
as  will  suit  your  convenience,  a  public  lecture  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  Agriculture. 

If,  upon  the  receipt  of  this  communication,  it  will  suit  your 
convenience  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  Assembly,  you 
will  please  inform  them,  through  me,  at  what  time  it  will  suit 
you.  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

B.  M'ALPIN, 

Clerk  of  Assembly. 
Dr.  C.  F.  WINSLOW, 

San  Francisco. 


SA.N  FRANCISCO, 

March  31,  1854. 
DEAR  SIR, 

I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  this  morning 
your  polite  letter,  extending  to  me  an  invitation,  in  the  name 
of  the  Assembly,  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  Agriculture  at  the 
capital. 

It  will  give  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  the  wishes  of  the 
Assembly,  as  nearly  as  my  time,  tastes,  and  pursuits  will 
allow ;  and,  if  it  meet  their  convenience,  I  will  deliver  a  dis- 


6 


course  on  "  The  Preparation  of  the  Earth  for  the  Intellectual 
Races,*'  on  the  evening  of  Monday,  10th  prox. 

Do  be  so  kind  as  to  express  to  the  Assembly  my  high  sense 
of  the  honor  conferred  on  me  by  their  instructions  to  you;  and 
allow  me,  my  dear  sir,  to  subscribe  myself  most  respectfully, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

C.  F.  WINSLOW. 

B.  M'ALPIN,  Esq.,  Clerk  of  Assembly, 
Sacramento. 


HOUSE  OF  ASSEMBLY, 

April  5,  1854. 
DEAR  SIR, 

I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  31st  of 
March,  proposing  to  deliver  a  public  lecture  on  Monday  even- 
ing, the  10th  inst. 

The  contents  of  your  communication  have  been  laid  before 
the  Assembly,  and  I  have  been  instructed  to  inform  you  that 
the  day  selected  by  you  meets  the  cordial  approbation  of  the 
members.  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Your  obedient  servant, 
BLANTON  M«ALPIN, 

Clerk  of  Assembly. 
Dr.  C.  F.  WINSLOW. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


LECTURE. 


GENTLEMEN,  —  In  the  discourse  to  which 
1  have  the  honor  to  invite  your  attention,  I 
shall  endeavor  to  trace  the  connection  of 
the  most  prominent  events  in  the  history 
of  our  planet,  and  to  unbind,  link  by  link, 
the  golden  chain  which  unites  man  with 
the  earth,  and  the  earth  with  its  Creator. 
The  subject  is  vast  in  extent;  but  my  de- 
sign is  only  to  present  to  your  careful  ob- 
servation a  picture  of  a  few  great  landmarks 
in  the  progress  of  time,  and  to  give  a  brief 
abstract  of  the  present  state  of  human 
knowledge,  expressly  adapted  to  the  high- 
est interests  of  this  new  Commonwealth. 
Without  entering  into  the  details  of  agri- 


8  LECTURE.  * 

culture  itself,  I  have  ventured  to  believe 
that  it  might,  at  this  time,  be  more  instruc- 
tive and  useful  to  unfold  the  great  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  all  agricultural 
sequences  are  based.  Instead  of  going  into 
the  minutiae  growing  out  of  the  application 
of  any  particular  science  to  the  cultivation 
of  the  soil,  I  shall  embrace,  in  one  grand 
generalization,  the  affinity  of  all  the  sci- 
ences to  agriculture ;  and  its  relation,  as  a 
consequence,  to  the  highest  interests  of  hu- 
man life. 

Some  of  the  most  striking  considerations 
you  may  observe  to  be  original,  and  the 
application  of  the  whole  range  of  thought 
many  persons  may  imagine  bold  and  no- 
vel ;  but  I  shall  solicit  your  patient  at- 
tention and  kind  indulgence  for  a  short 
time,  trusting  that  a  kindly  and  confiding 
stroll,  hand  in  hand  with  the  Infinite  Crea- 
tor, may  conduct  us  to  brighter  insights 
into  his  nature,  and  impart  to  us  that  su- 


LECTURE.  9 

blimity  of  knowledge  which  can  only  be 
attained  by  a  calm  and  profound  contem- 
plation of  his  works. 

As  salts  exist  in  the  ocean  dissolved  and 
invisible,  so,  in  the  original  condition  of 
things,  the  matter  composing  this  earth 
existed  as  a  solution  in  ether,  and  was 
diffused  throughout  space.  As  the  salts 
of  the  ocean  crystallize  by  condensation, 
and  assume  specific  shapes ;  so  primordial 
atoms,  subject  to  forces  instituted  by  Su- 
preme Wisdom,  assumed  solidity,  and  be- 
came planetary  spheres.  Atoms,  endowed 
with  similar  degrees  of  the  creative  forces, 
possessed  similar  properties,  and  became 
the  simple  elements  of  nature,  which  have 
been  brought  to  light  by  the  power  of  the 
human  understanding.  The  accumulation 
of  elementary  masses  of  condensed  matter 
was  attended  with  galvanic  results  so  po- 
tent that  complete  fusion  ensued  to  the 


10  LECTURE. 

earth,  and  what  existed  at  first  as  molecules 
dissolved  in  ether,  and  afterwards  as  solid 
masses  of  varying  metallic  and  mineral 
composition,  or  as  gas  and  fluid,  became, 
when  ultimately  mingled  together,  a  glow- 
ing globe  of  compound  and  liquid  rock, 
eight  thousand  miles  thick,  circling  around 
the  sun. 

Such  was  the  primeval  condition  of  the 
planet  which  is  now  our  delightful  and  in- 
viting abode. 

In  process  of  time,  the  incandescent 
globe  cooled  on  its  surface ;  and,  in  solidi- 
fying, a  second  condensation  ensued  under 
circumstances  not  favorable  to  the  forma- 
tion of  such  enormous  crystals  as  probably 
existed  when  matter  possessed  greater  free- 
dom and  mobility  in  space.  The  degree  of 
^fluidity,  however,  in  the  molten  matter,  was 
sufficient  for  such  elective  affinities  to  take 
place  as  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the 
granitic  or  primitive  rocks  constituting, 


LECTURE.  11 

throughout  its  surface,  the  rib-work  and  solid 
foundation  of  the  earth.  Succeeding  these 
events,  gases  condensed  around  the  sphere, 
forming  an  envelop  of  water  charged  with 
soluble  matters  a  thousand  fathoms  deep, 
and  an  envelop  of  atmosphere  many  miles 
in  height. 

Thus  God  made  the  material  world,  —  a 
mere  atom  in  space,  —  but  to  us  appear- 
ing so  vast  and  mysterious,  that  no  mor- 
tal powers  have  yet  fathomed  the  forces 
by  which  its  centre  is  vivified,  or  its  sur- 
face rendered  so  rich  and  prolific  in  animal 
and  vegetable  forms. 

To  transmute  rock  into  fertile  soil,  fresh 
exertions  of  wisdom  and  power  became  ne- 
cessary. The  arrangement  of  the  spheres 
in  space  subjected  all  subsequent  events  to 
the  operation  of  fixed  and  eternal  laws,  and 
simplified  the  exertions  and  manifestations 
of  the  Infinite  Will.  As  the  globe  made  its 
annual  circuit  around  the  sun,  a  periodical 


XIITIVERSITT 

V         ^         OF 

^ 


12  LECTURE. 

change  in  the  density  of  its  mass  ensued, 
the  result  of  which  has  either  been  to  ele- 
vate areas  of  greater  or  less  extent  above 
the  ocean  to  form  islands  and  continents, 
or  to  open  fissures  in  the  crust,  to  afford  an 
outlet  for  melted  rock.  Thus,  overlying  the 
granite,  we  find  sedimentary  materials  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  show  that  the  consti- 
tuents of  the  granite  had  been  comminu- 
ted, while  in  fusion,  by  contact  with  the 
primeval  ocean.  The  process  of  granula- 
tion, on  the  largest  possible  scale,  laid  the 
first  foundation  for  the  future  soil  of  conti- 
nents. Here  is  the  origin  of  the  gneis,  the 
mica-slate,  and  of  some  clays  which  have 
become  so  useful  to  mankind  in  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization.  These  materials  were 
so  easily  acted  on  and  decomposed  by  me- 
teoric and  mechanical  causes,  that  their  si- 
licious  and  alkaline  elements  were  rapidly 
reduced  to  dust,  and  fitted  for  the  admix- 
ture of  the  vegetable  and  animal  remains 


LECTURE.  13 

which  were  subsequently  destined  to  enrich 
their  composition,  and  prepare  the  earth  for 
the  CREATION  of  the  human  race. 

How  marvellous  in  number  are  the  cy- 
cles of  ages  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
inception  of  the  thought  of  that  creation 
in  the  Infinite  Mind !  But  how  clearly  we 
discover,  that  the  remoteness  of  the  past 
was  to  be  allied  to  the  present ;  that  with 
the  creation  of  the  ancient  globe  was  uni- 
ted the  thought  of  the  creation  of  the  future 
man !  How  steadily,  how  undeviatingly, 
progressed  the  development  of  that  grand 
idea  of  the  Supreme  Being !  Here,  at  last, 
we  stand  in  the  midst  of  the  teeming  earth, 
and  embrace  the  productive  soil  as  our 
greatest  benefactor.  There  is  no  escape 
from  the  fact  of  our  origin,  nor  from  the 
immortal  destiny  allotted  to  our  race.  God 
is  our  Father;  the  earth  is  our  mother,  and 
from  her  bosom  is  drawn  the  sustenance 
of  our  bodies ;  while  the  immortal  spirit  of 


14  LECTURE. 

the  Almighty  enkindles  our  immaterial 
being.  So  surely  as  we  sprang  from  an 
ancestor,  and  that  ancestor  from  the  earth, 
and  the  earth  from  chaos,  and  chaos  from 
God,  just  so  surely  are  we  linked  to  the 
first  thought  of  the  Eternal  in  the  remote 
past,  and  with  the  consummation  of  his 
designs  in  the  everlasting  ages  to  come. 
It  is  only  from  this  point  of  view  that  we 
discover  the  lofty  dignity  of  human  nature, 
and  are  enabled  to  embrace  the  means  of 
attaining  the  highest  ends,  and  the  greatest 
happiness  of  which  our  being  is  suscepti- 
ble. 

But  what  a  long  chain  of  great  events  is 
stretched  between  us  and  the  infancy  of 
the  earth,  —  between  its  present  surface,  so 
fertile  and  productive,  and  that  bare,  unin- 
habitable rock  which  was  first  uplifted  from 
the  bosom  of  the  primeval  seas !  How 
long  the  epochs  devoted  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  that  wonderful  scheme,  —  the 


LECTURE.  15 

fertilization  of  the  soil,  and  its  preparation 
for  the  advent  of  the  human  race !  How 
vast  the  designs,  how  varied  the  means 
employed  to  elaborate  and  adapt  it  to  the 
highest  developments  of  agriculture;  and 
to  fit  it,  not  only  to  afford  the  richest  nour- 
ishment to  the  body,  but  to  enlarge  the 
mind  to  the  broadest  expansion  of  its  fa- 
culties ! 

Spread  out  on  the  gneis  and  mica-schist, 
full  ten  miles  deep,  and  below  the  accumu- 
lations of  the  remains  of  extinct  and  re- 
markable races  of  plants  and  animals,  are 
inexhaustible  quarries  of  an  humble  and 
unseemly  rock,  called  roofing  slate.  So 
ancient  is  this  material,  that  embosomed 
within  it  have  been  recently  discovered  the 
fossil  remains  of  marine  vegetation,  —  the 
first  which  the  Almighty  created  upon  the 
globe,  and  their  germs  were  planted  in  the 
sea.  And  there  is  much  reason  to  suppose, 
that  these  vast  beds  of  laminated  rock, 


16 


LECTURE. 


which  have  been  so  useful  to  man  in  va- 
rious ways,  are  neither  more  nor  less  than 
the  accumulations  of  decomposed  feldspar, 
crowded  with  marine  vegetables  extinct 
for  countless  ages,  and  the  types  of  which 
appear  now  in  the  sea-weeds  and  kelps 
that  grow  along  our  coasts.  The  humble 
origin  of  these  slate-beds,  and  their  ex- 
treme antiquity,  are  no  less  remarkable 
than  the  purpose  which  they  have  sub- 
served in  the  improvement  and  cultivation 
of  the  loftiest  faculties  of  man.  They  con- 
tain the  first  germ  of  the  organic  power, 
whose  agency  now  clothes  this  beautiful 
earth  with  such  lovely  and  numerous  forms. 
The  living  mark  of  the  Almighty's  presence 
is  there;  and  it  is  the  first  instrument  of 
scientific  culture  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  young  in  all  the  enlightened  commu- 
nities of  the  world.  It  is  by  the  agency 
of  these  rude  slabs  of  ancient  rock  that  the 
human  faculties  have  been  cultivated  and 


LECTURE.  17 

enlarged,  until  they  are  trained  to  weigh 
the  earth  as  in  a  balance,  to  measure  un- 
imaginable distances  into  infinite  space, 
and  to  calculate  the  positive  existence  of 
undiscovered  worlds.  Here  again  we  trace 
an  unmistakable  connection  between  the 
mind  of  God  and  the  destiny  of  man, 
and  behold  the  wonderful  fact,  revealed  in 
characters  of  living  light,  that,  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  humblest  vegetable 
growths,  was  appointed  to  ultimately  spring 
the  loftiest  truths  which  adorn  the  pages  of 
science  and  philosophy. 

So,  from  one  step  to  another,  as  we  as- 
cend from  the  crystalline  crust  through  the 
fossiliferous  strata  to  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  we  discover  most  clearly  the  same 
foresight,  —  I  mean  that  divine  foreknow- 
ledge and  omnipotency,  which,  when  they 
planted  the  first  organic  germ  in  the  pri- 
meval ocean,  destined  that  it  should  be  a 
connecting  link  between  the  attributes  of 


18  LECTURE. 

the  Infinite  and  the  attributes  of  the  finite ; 
and  that  it  should  be  the  means  of  educa- 
ting the  future  man,  not  only  to  figure  up 
the  results  of  his  commercial  operations 
and  to  measure  the  latitudes  and  longi- 
tudes of  the  earth,  but,  by  the  abstruser 
powers  of  his  understanding,  to  fathom  the 
distant  realms  of  space  as  with  a  plummet- 
line,  and  to  calculate  the  strength  of  the 
forces  by  which  the  burning  hosts  of  hea- 
ven are  bound  together. 

If  we  survey  the  palaeozoic  age,  we  find 
a  depth  of  twenty  thousand  feet  filled  with 
the  remains  of  countless  fishes,  and  mol- 
luscous animals,  and  beds  of  limestone, 
formed  by  the  decay  and  metamorphic 
changes  of  corals,  shells,  and  sea-weeds, 
—  all  the  production  of  the  most  ancient 
seas;  and  all  so  different  from  the  fishes, 
mollusks,  and  corallines  of  the  present  day, 
as  to  prove,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  fresh  ex- 
hibitions of  creative  power  have  been,  from 


LECTURE.  19 

time  to  time,  manifested  to  renew  the  infe- 
rior races  of  the  planet.  This  vast  accumu- 
lation of  the  remains  of  the  primitive  races, 
mingled  with  the  drifting  sands  of  decom- 
posing reefs  and  metamorphic  rocks  just 
emerging  from  the  wild  and  noiseless  waste 
of  waters  that  enveloped  the  ancient  world, 
must  have  occupied  the  lapse  of  ages,  an 
attempt  to  conjecture  which  bewilders  the 
imagination.  The  myriads  of  marine  forms 
that  lived  and  decayed,  and  were  piled  up 
to  form  the  compost  for  the  extraordinary 
age  of  terrestrial  vegetation  which  was  to 
follow,  no  calculation  can  number.  Every 
marine  plant  and  animal,  however  humble 
its  shape  or  size,  was  a  living  laboratory, 
whereby  the  original  elements  of  inert  mat- 
ter were  converted  into  new  forms,  to  be 
subsequently  decomposed,  pited  away,  and 
solidified,  and  held  in  reserve  for  the  neces- 
sities of  the  bright  and  beautiful  ages  which 
were  to  clothe  the  globe,  from  the  equator 


20  LECTURE. 

to  its  poles,  with  a  tropical,  luxuriant,  and 
perennial  vegetation.  I  never  contemplate 
these  marvellous  events,  and  their  silent 
march  through  the  cycles  of  remote  time, 
without  being  brought  into  closer  relations 
with  the  Great  Eternal,  and  without  a  feel- 
ing that  his  everlasting  arm,  in  substantial 
manifestation,  hovers  over  the  globe,  and 
directs  the  arrangement  of  these  great  phy- 
sical and  geographical  affairs.  When  the 
mind,  in  some  midnight  hour,  when  all 
within  and  all  without  has  settled  into 
complete  repose,  —  when  the  mind,  thus 
tranquil,  stretches  through  the  past  and 
makes  itself  the  solitary  inhabitant  of  the 
palaeozoic  ages,  and,  like  some  broad- 
winged  bird  sailing  through  the  upper 
regions  of  the  air,  looks  down  on  the  new- 
made  earth,  how  lonely  and  solemn  dawns 
upon  us  that  first  morning  of  creation ! 
No  lofty  mountains  clothed  with  verdant 
woods ;  no  broad  plains  filled  with  waving 


LECTURE.  21 

grasses;  no  tropical  shores  covered  with 
towering  palms ;  no  howl  nor  breathing 
sound  of  beast,  bird,  nor  insect,  salutes 
the  senses.  All  is  one  endless  waste  of 
ocean,  save  here  and  there  a  bleaching 
bank  of  coral,  or  a  broad  black  rock,  the 
nucleus  of  future  continents,  just  peering 
above  the  waves.  For  many  a  league,  we 
may  behold  fields  of  §  kelp  springing  from 
the  shallows,  and  everywhere  countless 
tribes  and  numbers  of  voracious  fishes, 
whose  forms  are  so  strange  as  to  defy 
classification  with  succeeding  races,  and 
the  destruction  of  all  of  which  has  been 
so  complete  that  the  dog-fish  of  the  pre- 
sent seas  is  the  only  living  type  of  all  the 
creatures  which  existed  during  that  most 
ancient  epoch. 

On  the  refuse  materials  accumulated  by 
the  decomposition  of  the  fishes  and  sea- 
weeds, during  the  palaeozoic  ages,  sprang 
up  a  vegetation  so  abundant  and  rapid, 


22  LECTURE. 

that  geologists  have  named  the  period  oc- 
cupied by  the  presence  of  these  events  the 
CARBONIFEROUS  AGE.  In  those  days3  the 
earth,  enriched  with  the  fertilizing  essences, 
—  the  phosphates,  the  ammonias,  the  alka- 
lies, and  the  acids,  distilled  from  the  produc- 
tions and  decompositions  of  the  preceding 
ages, — teemed  with  gigantic  forms  of  vege- 
tation, which  are  represented  at  present  by 
the  ferns  and  flags  of  our  low  and  marshy 
grounds.  The  ferns  grew  fifty  and  sixty  feet 
in  height,  and  twelve  feet  in  diameter;  while 
the  fossil  remains  of  the  rushes  show  them 
to  have  attained  the  extraordinary  diameter 
of  twelve  inches.  Under  the  influence  of 
tropical  heat  which  appears  to  have  uni- 
versally prevailed  in  those  days  throughout 
the  earth's  surface  and  reeking  moisture 
which  readily  dissolved  the  silicates  and 
the  ammoniacal  salts  stored  up  during  the 
preceding  ages,  the  whole  globe  was  stimu- 
lated into  wonderful  fertility.  But  that  fer- 


LECTURE.  23 

tility  was  only  fitted  for  the  purposes  which 
Divine  Wisdom  foreordained  that  it  should 
subserve.  As  the  remains  of-  the  marine 
plants  and  animals  had  been  previously 
treasured  up  as  a  foundation  for  the  great 
vegetable  growths  which  were  to  follow, 
so  these  vegetable  forms  were  accumulated 
in  vast  heaps,  and  allowed  to  decompose 
and  consolidate  for  the  necessities  of  races 
to  come  still  later.  Thus  were  laid  down 
the  inexhaustible  beds  of  bituminous  and 
anthracite  coal  which  are  now  so  necessary 
for  the  comfort  of  man,  and  so  advantage- 
ous, directly  and  indirectly,  in  developing 
the  resources  of  the  world,  and  in  enlarging 
the  limits  of  human  knowledge  and  power. 
The  connection  of  these  great  deposits  with 
the  commercial  developments  of  the  pre- 
sent age,  by  which  all  the  faculties  of  the 
most  enlightened  communities  are  stimu- 
lated to  their  largest  capacity  and  a  con- 
stantly increasing  energy,  cannot  be  over- 


24  LECTURE. 

looked  nor  misunderstood.  But  they  are 
only  one  link  in  the  great  chain  of  events 
which  succeed  each  other  so  beautifully 
and  undeviatingly  through  the  long  pro- 
cession of  the  ages,  and  which  were  cal- 
culated to  unite  the  physical  being  of  man 
with  the  creation  of  the  first  material  mo- 
lecule in  space,  and  his  moral  nature  with 
the  immaterial  essence  of  the  Deity,  —  a 
principle  which  is  equally  the  central  force 
that  binds  together  atoms  and  planets,  and 
the  whole  universe  of  suns. 

The  earth,  during  the  carboniferous  age, 
so  rank  and  abundant  in  gigantic  trees  and 
herbage,  was  yet  as  silent  as  the  grave. 
There  was  not  a  living  ear  to  note  the  fall 
of  the  mighty  palm,  the  roar  of  mountain 
torrents,  nor  the  thunderings  of  the  earth- 
quakes which  overturned  the  solid  hills. 
The  broad  continents  were  choked  with 
pestilential  vapors,  unfit  to  prolong  the  life 
of  breathing  creatures.  No  beasts  prowled 


LECTURE.  25 

through  the  jungle  of  those  ancient  forests. 
Only  insects  buzzed  among  the  branches, 
and  scorpions  nestled  in  their  steaming 
mould. 

But  a  new  and  marvellous  epoch  was  to 
supervene,  when  fresh  demonstrations  of 
creative  power  were  to  be  displayed  on  the 
earth's  surface.  The  rich  soil  of  the  palae- 
ozoic world  had  been  measurably  exhausted 
in  affording  nourishment  to  the  vegetable 
productions  of  the  carboniferous  era;  and 
another  fertilizing  preparation  was  neces- 
sary for  a  surface  destined  to  become  the 
future  abode  of  the  pastoral  and  intellec- 
tual races.  Up  to  this  period,  no  breathing 
quadruped  had  been  created.  Now,  how- 
ever, the  time  had  arrived  to  usher  in  new 
forms ;  and  we  behold,  creeping  from  the 
sea,  and  basking  on  the  shores  of  great 
inlets  and  of  fresh-water  lakes,  vast  swarms 
of  reptiles  that  respire  the  air,  and  whose 
magnitude  is  so  prodigious  and  voracity 


26 


LECTURE. 


so  great,  as  to  awaken  wonder,  and,  for 
a  moment,  lead  us  to  doubt  the  wisdom, 
goodness,  and  intelligent  design  of  their 
creation.  It  is  only  for  a  moment,  how- 
ever, that  the  soundest  and  most  cultivated 
minds  doubt  the  benevolence  of  the  Deity. 
We  must  embrace  these  extraordinary 
events  in  .the  largest  philosophical  gene- 
ralization ;  and,  occupying  the  summit  of 
the  ages,  a  scrutinizing  retrospect  reveals 
to  us  the  resplendent  glory  of  the  Omnipo- 
tent. Those  hideous  and  monstrous  forms 
of  the  Ichthyosaurii,  Megalosaurii,  Plesio- 
saurii,  Iguanodons,  and  countless  other 
amphibious  creatures,  the  design  of  whose 
creation  was  accomplished,  and  whose  ex- 
tinction from  the  face  of  the  earth  was 
wrought  long  ago,  were  not  created  merely 
for  the  pastime  of  their  Maker;  neither  .were 
they  made  for  the  purpose  of  astonishing 
mortal  men  with  the  magnitude  of  their 
frames,  or  the  rapacity  of  their  appetites. 


LECTURE.  27 

They  were  ingeniously  designed  for  the 
noblest  and  most  useful  of  all  purposes,  — 
vast  laboratories,  whereby  the  marine  races 
were  to  be  transformed  into  new  and  ferti- 
lizing elements  for  the  soil ;  and  at  last  they 
were  to  lay  down  their  own  unwieldy  forms 
on  the  earth,  and  mingle  their  decomposing 
remains  with  the  ancient  rocks.  Chemistry 
unfolds  the  interesting  mystery,  that  the 
secretions  of  reptiles  and  birds  afford  the 
most  quickening  principles  of  vegetable 
growth ;  a'nd,  if  we  cast  the  eye  over  some 
of  the  most  productive  commercial  opera- 
tions of  the  present  time,  we  behold  whole 
navies  transporting  these  products  from  one 
extremity  of  the  globe  to  the  other,  for  the 
purpose  of  imparting  fresh  fertility  to  ex- 
hausted soils.  These  decomposed  materi- 
als of  the  amphibious  races  and  of  sea- 
birds,  called  guano,  which  have  accumu- 
lated for  ages  on  some  solitary  islands  of 
the  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans,  are  only  a 

.UNIVERSITTI 


28 


LECTURE. 


grain  of  sand  on  the  seashore,  in  compari- 
son with  the  vast  amount  of  the  decom- 
posed remains  of  reptiles  that  were  piled 
up  with  the  drifting  sands  and  deposits  of 
the  secondary  ages.  Some  of  the  mon- 
sters of  that  day  were  sixty  feet  in  length  ; 
and  the  aquatic  birds  were  of  such  enor- 
mous size,  that  their  foot-prints,  left  in  the 
sand  or  mud  of  those  ancient  shores,  sub- 
sequently hardened  into  rock,  exhibit  a 
length  of  eighteen  inches,  and  are  five  feet 
apart.  Now  the  mysteries  of  those  won- 
derful ages  are  unfolded  to  human  compre- 
hension. The  whole  work  of  God  had 
been  to  prepare  the  earth  for  man  ;  but 
man's  time  had  not  yet  come. 

The  secondary  ages  passed  away.  Old 
islands  and  continents  sank  beneath  the 
sea ;  and,  after  countless  ages,  they  rose 
again  to  display  new  and  more  perfect 
forms  of  vegetable  and  animal  life.  The 
races  of  huge  amphibious  creatures,  with 


LECTURE.  29 

a  single  heart  and  cold  blood,  had  finished 
their  work ;  and  ponderous  beasts  with 
warm  blood  and  double  hearts,  which 
breathe  the  air  and  feed  on  trees  and 
shrubs  and  grass,  and  some  of  which  de- 
vour each  other,  were  introduced  and  mul- 
tiplied in  endless  numbers.  This  is  the 
TERTIARY  AGE,  the  age  of  mammiferous 
animals,  through  whose  agency  all  the 
organic  elements  of  nature  were  amalga- 
mated, and  laid  down  upon  the  earth, *and 
stored  up  in  successive  strata  for  the  agri- 
cultural epoch  to  ensue  at  the  introduction 
of  the  human  race.  These,  in  time,  passed 
away  by  the  physical  changes  of  the  sur- 
face; and,  at  last,  after  cycles  of  ages  so 
infinite  in  number  that  no  human  thought 
can  imagine  or  calculate  their  beginning, 
the  most  perfect  work  of  the  Almighty  was 
created  by  a  special  act,  and  planted  in  the 
rich  alluvial  valleys  of  Asia,  which  in  the 
Hebrew  tongue  are  called  "  Eden,"  or  the 


30  LECTURE. 

abodes  of  pleasure  and  delight.  Previous 
to  that  time,  "  there  was  not  a  man  to  till 
the  ground." 

Thus  the  remarkable  revelation  by  Mo- 
ses of  God's  design  in  the  introduction  of 
man,  is  clearly  sustained  by  following  the 
physical  history  of  the  globe  from  chaos  to 
the  period  when  its  surface  was  sufficiently 
stored  with  vegetable  and  animal  remains 
to  fit  it  for  the  highest  developments  of 
scientific  agriculture.  And  it  seems  to  me 
no  less  extraordinary  than  remarkable, 
while  the  first  great  truths  from  Heaven 
were  planted  among  the  flags  of  the  Nile, 
that  they  should  never  have  attained  their 
complete  germination,  until  they  have 
grasped  the  entire  circuit  of  the  earth,  sub- 
stantially encircling  both  hemispheres,  and 
uniting  the  Asiatic  and  European  civiliza- 
tions amid  the  bull-rushes  of  the  Sacra- 
mento. The  operation  of  the  mysterious 
laws  controlling  the  motion  and  transmu- 


LECTURE. 


31 


tation  of  matter  and  of  society  by  life  and 
death,  though  ever  active  and  constantly 
attaining  minor  results,  is  nevertheless  in- 
sensible. But  the  great  events  growing 
out  of  the  aggregate  of  these  changes,  con- 
stitute landmarks  in  the  history  of  the 
earth,  which  become  the  more  conspicuous 
by  appearing  remote  and  widely  separated 
from  each  other.  Such  are  the  conditions 
of  time,  and  the  relations  of  the  ages,  from 
chaos  to  Adam,  and  from  Adam  until  now. 
The  instinctive  foresight  of  many  ani- 
mals induces  them  to  store  up  food  for 
their  future  necessity,  or  for  the  nourish- 
ment of  an  offspring  which  is  to  appear  at 
some  subsequent  period.  So  the  intelli- 
gence of  all  varieties  of  the  human  family 
induces  them  to  make  provision  for  future 
want ;  and  the  strong  commercial  wisdom 
of  enlightened  communities  not  only  cre- 
ates the  thousand  forms  of  merchandise 
suited  to  the  tastes  and  necessities  of  all 


32 


LECTURE. 


races  of  merr,  but  it  transports  these  from 
one  region  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  as  the 
demands  of  society  require.  This  is  the 
result  of  intellectual  foresight  and  acti- 
vity,—  the  finite  exhibition  of  a  principle 
which,  in  the  Creator  of  the  world,  be- 
comes infinite.  Through  the  long  ages 
occupied  in  the  vegetable  and  animal 
growths,  and  in  the  various  geological  for- 
mations and  changes,  the  same  econo- 
mical ideas  were  manifested,  and  similar 
arrangements  provided  for  all  the  various 
agricultural  and  commercial  necessities  of 
mankind.  This  fact  is  fully  comprehended 
when  we  survey  the  present  diversity  of 
the  earth's  surface.  Had  the  deposits  of 
vegetable  and  animal  remains  continued 
for  ever  in  the  same  horizontal  positions  in 
which  they  accumulated,  they  would  have 
been  very  unavailable  to  our  present  neces- 
sities. But  the  same  forces  which  were 
exerted  in  the  original  state  of  matter  to 


LECTURE.  33 

4 

concentrate  it  into  globes,  and  to  move 
these  globes  through  space,  in  ceaseless 
circuits  around  each  other,  are  still  dis- 
played in  such  a  manner  as  to  create  the 
physical  and  geographical  changes  of  the 
surface,  which  everywhere  arrest  the  eye  of 
the  most  common  observer.  These  forces, 
employed  to  produce  the  alternate  eleva- 
tion and  depression  of  whole  hemispheres 
in  a  quiet  and  insensible  manner,  by  a 
periodical  change  of  density  in  the  planet 
as  it  approaches  or  recedes  from  the  sun, 
are  oftentimes  exerted  in  spasmodic  out- 
breaks through  various  parts  of  the  earth's 
crust.  These  local  exhibitions  arise  from 
the  tension  of  the  whole  molten  interior  of 
the  planet ;  and  those  portions  of  the  crust 
which  are  thinnest,  or  which  have  been 
weakened  by  previous  subterranean  action, 
yield  the  most  readily  to  the  pressure  of 
the  internal  repulsive  agency.  Thus  vol- 
canic phenomena  arise  by  the  formation 


34  LECTURE. 

of  fissures  through  the  crust;  and  earth- 
quakes, dykes,  craters,  and  inundations  of 
lava,  ensue.  These  are  the  agencies  em- 
ployed to  act  beneath  the  'crust  for  the 
purpose  of  disturbing  the  horizontality  of 
original  deposits.  After  these  comes  the 
operation  of  atmospherical  agencies  which 
are  so  necessary  to  accomplish  the  disin- 
tegration and  diffusion  of  the  most  ancient 
strata.  Here  we  behold  again  the  marvel- 
lous display  of  an  Infinite  Wisdom,  and 
trace,  with  an  unmistaking  eye,  the  links  of 
adamant  which  chain  together  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end.  The  remote  past,  ex- 
tending to  chaos,  and  advancing  step  by 
step  through  the  palaeozoic,  carboniferous, 
reptilian,  and  mammiferous  ages,  opens 
upon  our  wondering  senses,  like  an  im- 
mense panorama  in  which  the  events  are 
so  strange,  great,  numerous,  and  complex, 
as  to  overwhelm  us  with  their  grandeur, 
and  to  appear  fabulous  and  incredible.  But 


LECTURE.  35 

the  first  display  of  forces  by  which  matter 
was  gathered  up  in  space,  and  formed  into 
worlds,  was  connected,  beyond  a  question, 
with  the  present  condition  of  the  globe, 
when  the  multiform  deposits  on  its  primi- 
tive crusts  are  overturned  and  exposed,  so 
as  to  become  accessible  to  man,  and  to  fit 
the  soil  for  the  most  elaborate  cultivation. 
Not  a  shower  of  rain  falls  on  the  hills,  ex- 
cept those  old  storehouses  of  sedimentary 
rock,  so  fall  of  silicates  and  of  the  solid  or 
dissolved  remnants  of  the  organic  ages, 
yield  up  a  portion  of  their  fertilizing  ele- 
ments which  flow  over  the  plains  or  valleys, 
endowing  them  with  fresh  energies,  and 
enriching  them  with  successive  harvests  of 
fruits  and  grain.  The  Nile,  in  its  annual 
inundations,  spreads  itself  over  the  broad 
vale  of  Egypt,  loaded  with  the  detritus 
which  was  first  garnered  up  in  the  paleo- 
zoic seas.  Thousands  of  years  have  not 
exhausted  those  fertilizing  treasuries ;  and 


36  LECTURE. 

for  thousands  of  years  to  come  they  shall 
continue  to  pour  down  their  wealth  upon 
the  heated  plains  of  Africa,  and  abundant 
fields  of  golden  grain  shall  reward  the  toils 
of  industrious  husbandry.  The  great  Sa- 
cramento valley  is  a  counterpart  of  the 
valley  of  the  Nile.  The  periodical  over- 
flows of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
rivers  are  loaded  with  solutions  and  detri- 
tus gathered  from  the  ancient  rocks  by 
countless  rills,  which,  at  last  uniting  into 
formidable  tributaries,  rush  with  impetu- 
osity through  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada.  The  gold  which  they  transport 
is  the  least  valuable  of  all  their  freight. 
The  decomposed  bones  of  one  Ichthyo- 
saurus or  of  one  Mastodon  would  stimulate 
the  growth  of  tons  of  wheat  and  barley ; 
while  the  whole  valley  full  of  gold  dust, 
properly  ploughed  and  harrowed,  laid  down 
with  good  seed  and  well  irrigated,  would 
breed  a  famine  in  the  land. 


LECTURE.  37 

But  all  the  products  of  the  earth  have 
their  use,  and  are  substantial  articles  of 
wealth ;  and  they  are  not  to  be  degrad- 
ed below  their  real  value  by  any  system 
of  philosophy.  The  same  agency  which 
turned  up  the  coal-beds  and  the  strata  so 
rich  in  the  elementary  materials  of  agri- 
culture, has  also  exposed  the  metallic  veins, 
and  mankind  has  been  endowed  with  facul- 
ties to  discover  the  utility  of  iron,  copper, 
silver,  and  gold ;  and  while  one  exerts  an 
immense  influence  in  extending  his  power, 
the  other  will  not  be  without  its  influence 
in  a  more  advanced  state  of  civilization, 
in  extending  the  warmest  charities  of  the 
heart.  Thus  all  the  agents  of  nature  will 
work  together  for  the  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  development  of  human  society. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  a  discourse  so  phi- 
losophical in  its  character  as  this,  and 
extending  over  so  broad  a  range,  to  enter 
into  extensive  details  of  any  sort ;  but  only, 


38  LECTURE. 

by  a  series  of  bold  touches,  to  present  a 
panoramic  picture  of  the  earth,  and  to 
show  that,  by  special  arrangements  of  Pro- 
vidence, it  was  directly  prepared  for  the 
habitation  of  the  intellectual  races,  and 
for  the  perfection  of  the  immaterial  nature 
with  which  they  are  endowed.  The  re- 
mains of  man  and  his  monuments  are  no- 
where found  below  the  surface;  but  through 
strata  extending  ten  miles  deep,  we  find 
the  fossil  exhibitions  of  previous  life,  ad- 
vancing, in  each  successive  series,  from  the 
original  bare  surface  of  the  gneissoid  rock, 
through  higher  stages  of  development,  un- 
til, at  last,  man  was  created  with  the  cow, 
sheep,  and  camel,  which  are  so  essential  to 
all  his  pastoral  and  agricultural  pursuits. 
It  would  be  a  delightful  and  instructive 
theme  to  walk  with  Adam  and  the  patri- 
archs, and  to  dwell  long  on  the  nomadic 
employments  which  occupied  primeval  so- 
ciety during  its  unfoldings  in  Asia.  But  it 


LECTURE.  39 

is  in  Egypt  that  we  trace  the  first  develop- 
ments of  agriculture,  and  discover  its  con- 
nection with  the  mechanic  arts,  and  with 
the  refinement  and  wealth  of  nations.  Even 
the  pastoral  and  wandering  tribes  of  Syria 
and  Arabia  became  dependent  on  that  pro- 
lific valley  for  bread  ;  and  science,  learning, 
and  the  arts  flourished,  and  spread  to  the 
Indus  on  one  hand,  and  to  Greece  on  the 
other.  In  Greece  the  same  arts  were  cul- 
tivated under  a  new  form  of  civilization; 
and  added  to  them  were  the  luxuriant  and 
sequestered  groves  of  Athens,  resounding 
with  the  eloquence  of  various  systems  of 
philosophy,  and  a  hundred  temples  conse- 
crated to  mythological  divinities  whose 
especial  province  was  to  preside  over  the 
germination  of  the  cereal  grasses  and  the 
general  fruitfulness  of  the  land. 

Some  centuries  later,  we  behold  the  great 
Roman  dominion  spreading  over  the  East, 
and  overwhelming  all  that  is  so  resplend- 


40  LECTURE. 

ent  in  the  history  of  the  past,  and  endea- 
voring to  appropriate  to.  itself  the  refine- 
ments of  agriculture,  taste,  and  the  arts, 
which  had  arisen  in  Egypt,  and  been 
perfected  in  Greece.  Wherever  the  Ro- 
mans extended  their  arms  over  the  barbaric 
races  who  inhabited  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Bri- 
tain, they  carried  their  agricultural  tastes, 
and  not  only  laid  the  foundation  of  new 
cities,  but  planted  the  vine  and  cereal 
grains,  and  introduced  all  the  varied  opera- 
tions of  husbandry.  Such  was  the  fruitful 
and  smiling  condition  of  the  plains  of  Italy 
and  of  the  whole  South  of  Europe,  that 
the  fierce  and  naked  sons  of  the  German 
forests  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to 
invade  them  and  enjoy  their  plenty.  And 
though  the  fine  arts  and  general  learning 
were  neglected  and  languished  beneath  the 
barbaric  sky  of  the  middle  ages,  nothing 
remained  so  undisturbed  as  the  old  imple- 
ments and  methods  of  cultivating  the  soil ; 


LECTURE.  41 

and  notwithstanding  the  rapid  advance- 
ment of  the  white  race,  within  two  centu- 
ries, in  astronomy,  navigation,  and  some 
other  lofty  and  useful  pursuits,  it  is  only 
within  the  present  generation  that  agri- 
culture has  begun  to  assume  its  true  posi- 
tion among  the  sciences.  Botany,  em- 
bracing vegetable  anatomy  and  physiology, 
is  now  explaining  the  difference  in  the 
structure  and  habits  of  the  multiform  crea- 
tions of  the  vegetable  kingdom.  Chemistry 
is  exposing  the  nature  of  soils,  and  the  nu- 
tritive, medicinal,  and  economical  qualities 
of  plants.  Meteorology  is  exhibiting  the 
operation  of  the  electrical  forces  and  other 
phenomenon  which  preside  over  the  deve- 
lopment of  germs,  the  circulation  of  the 
sap,  and  the  formation  of  the  ligneous 
fibre.  Geology  is  unfolding  to  us  the  im- 
mense resources  of  the  earth,  and  the  rich 
composts  of  organic  remains  that  have 
been  garnered  up  from  very  remote  ages. to 


42  LECTURE. 

meet  the  endless  wants  of  the  pastoral 
and  agricultural  races.  And  while  Physi- 
cal Astronomy  unveils  the  wonderful  and 
mighty  forces  by  which  the  earth  is  bound 
to  the  sun  and  to  all  other  bodies  in  the 
universe,  a  new  branch  of  inquiry,  which  I 
propose  to  name  Astrography,  will,  in  the 
progressive  development  of  science,  explain 
the  mysterious  operation  of  the  forces  that 
elevate  and  depress  the  surfaces  of  the 
planets,  and  thereby  create  the  great  and 
numerous  inequalities  of  mountain  and 
valley  which  have  exposed  the  sedimen- 
tary strata  on  the  earth,  and  rendered  its 
face  so  fertile,  and  varied  in  temperature, 
and  so  suitable  for  all  the  wants  of  the 
human  family.  Thus,  it  may  be  observed, 
that  researches  in  all  the  physical  sciences 
directly  extend  the  limits  of  agricultural 
knowledge ;  —  and  that  agriculture,  as  a 
science,  is  the  complex  offspring  of  all  other 
departments  of  human  learning ;  and  that 


LECTURE.  43 

it,  embracing  the  kindred  and  more  attrac- 
tive pursuits  «f  horticulture  and  floriculture, 
can  only  attain  its  complete  development 
when  all  other  sciences  have  reached  their 
perfection. 

Heretofore  I  have  traced  the  history  of 
the  earth  as  especially  intended  for  the  ul- 
timate habitation  of  man,  and  have  endea- 
vored thus  far  to  show  that  the  chief  aim 
of  the  Creator  was  to  store  it  with  inex- 
haustible resources  for  man's  physical  ag- 
grandizement. If  you  will  grant  me  your 
kind  indulgence  a  little  longer,  I  will  be- 
stow a  few  reflections  on  what  appears  to 
have  been  even  a  higher  aim  'of  the  Infinite 
Will. 

In  tracing  all  the  great  geological  and 
organic  events,  —  and  even  the  mutations 
of  society,  —  as  one  order  of  circumstances 
succeeds  another,  we  discover  a  tendency 
to  improve  on  the  past,  and  an  undeviating 


44 


LECTURE. 


advancement  towards  perfection.  Daring 
the  palaeozoic,  carboniferous,  reptilian,  and 
even  the  mammiferous  ages,  the  vegetable 
forms  had  not  attained  that  degree  of  de- 
velopment and  perfection  which  is  found 
to  exist  in  connection  with  the  appearance 
of  the  human  race.  Trees  and  plants,  bear- 
ing flowers  and  fruits  attractive  to  the 
highest  sensibilities  and  the  most  delicate 
faculties  of  appreciation,  had  not  been  cre- 
ated. But,  immediately  preceding  the  ad- 
vent of  the  human  family,  they  were  called 
into  being;  and  on  the  hill-sides  and  in 
the  valleys,  in  the  open  plains  and  seques- 
tered forests,  they  unfold  their  smiling  pe- 
tals, and  hold  out  their  varied  fruitage  to 
win  the  admiration,  impart  the  most  refined 
pleasure,  and  exalt  the  immaterial  nature 
of  man.  Previous  to  this,  the  surface  of 
the  earth  had  not  been  so  elaborated  by  the 
intermixture  of  organic  remains,  or  so  diver- 
sified in  the  elevation  and  temperature  of 


LECTURE.  45 

its  mountains  and  lowlands,  as  to  fit  it  for 
the  multiform  varieties  of  the  vegetable 
family.  Now  we  find  it  prepared,  both  in 
climate  and  soil,  to  nourish  not  only  the 
imperfect  types  of  the  earlier  ages,  but  the 
most  complicated  ligneous  structures  which 
adorn  the  colder  zones.  So  various  is  the 
distribution  of  land  and  water,  —  of  moun- 
tain ranges,  broad  plains,  and  open  or  deep 
valleys,  —  of  heat  and  cold,  —  and  of  the 
predominant  elements  derived  from  the 
different  geological  disintegrations  and  or- 
ganic deposits,  that  the  earth  has  at  last 
become  capable  of  sustaining  an  endless 
variety  of  vegetable  forms.  And  this  fit- 
ness for  such  diversified  productions  had 
never  existed  previous  to  the  TERTIARY 
AGE.  But  now  we  behold  the  earth  an 
immense  Eden,  luxuriant  with  every  plant 
and  "  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight  and 
good  for  food,"  and  mankind  placed  in  the 
midst  thereof,  with  "  the  tree  of  knowledge 


46  LECTURE. 

of  good  and  evil"  overshadowing  all,  and 
the  tree  of  life  eternal  unfolding  its  heav- 
enly blossoms  and  winning  mortals  to  re- 
pose beneath  its  blissful  and  everlasting 
shades. 

The  last  vegetable  germs  planted  on  the 
earth  by  the  Creator  were  those  which  pro- 
duced beautiful  and  fragrant  flowers  and 
grateful  fruits ;  and  they  are  made  capable 
of  multiplying  their  forms  and  fragrance, 
and  of  being  developed  by  scientific  culti- 
vation, to  an  extent  not  dreamed  of  by  un- 
informed minds.  Coincident  with  them 
appeared  the  last  and  most  elaborate  ani- 
mal structure,  —  that  of  the  human  race, 
endowed  with  lofty  powers  of  understand- 
ing, and  a  spiritual  efflorescence  capable  of 
the  highest  degree  of  expansion.  These 
two  classes  of  material  and  moral  develop- 
ments are  intimately  connected,  and  even 
dependent,  one  upon  the  other,  in  the  at- 
tainment of  their  ultimate  perfectibility. 


LECTURE.  47 

They  are  linked  inseparably  together.  The 
budding  and  blossoming  of  the  most  lovely 
and  odorous  flowers  are  not  only  emble- 
matical of,  but  they  are  positively  united 
with,  the  growth  and  unfolding  of  the 
sweetest,  most  delicate,  and  holiest  affec- 
tions of  the  human  soul.  Moreover,  while 
it  seems  to  especially  appertain  to  the 
stronger  and  more  masculine  spirit  of  man 
to  regard  and  cherish  the  forming  of  the 
fruit,  the  deep,  humble,  chaste,  and  sweet 
spirit  of  the  cultivated  woman  is  exalted 
and  beautified  by  its  intercourse  with  flow- 
ers. So,  under  the  spiritualizing  influences 
of  sickness  and  death,  when  all  the  hard 
and  bitter  memories  of  life  are  merged  in 
the  prospect  of  a  more  perfect  state  of  be- 
ing and  of  intercourse  with  angels  and 
with  the  Creator,  we  instinctively  gather 
around  our  fading  senses  the  inspiring 
companionship  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
fragrant  of  vegetable  forms,  as  types  and 


48  LECTURE. 

emblems  of  the  more  perfect  unfoldings  of 
our  own  immaterial  nature.  Not  only  so, 
but  after  our  frames  are  mingled  with  the 
common  soil,  the  spirit  of  friendship  and 
love  —  the  finite  personification  of  the  pu- 
rest attribute  of  the  Infinite  —  still  follows 
us,  weaving  garlands  of  flowers  to  connect 
the  mortal  with  the  immortal;  and  they 
are  planted  above  our  decaying  forms,  as 
living  types  of  the  heavenly  nature  which 
attains  its  full  development  only  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Creator. 

Thus  God  and  the  chaotic  night  of  re- 
mote  time  are  connected  by  the  wonderful 
organic  life  of  the  geological  ages  with  the 
human  race,  and  with  the  present  surface 
and  soil  of  the  planet,  which  are  so  essen- 
tial to  the  happiness  of  man  as  a  tempo- 
rary, and  to  his  intellectual  and  moral 
culture,  and  to  his  religious  inspiration,  as 
an  immortal  being.  Eternity  past  is  joined 
with  eternity  to  come  by  a  chain  whose 


LECTURE.  49 

links  are  marvellous  and  beautiful  as  they 
are  unbroken,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end.  The  past  and  future  are  alike  con- 
nected with  the  fertilization  of  the  soil, 
and  with  the  creation  of  man  to  till  that 
soil ;  for  thereby  he  is  fitted  to  perfect  his 
physical  and  immaterial  nature,  to  attain 
the  highest  refinements  of  civilization,  and 
become  prepared  for  still  more  exalted  and 
enduring  enjoyment. 

Having  traced  some  of  the  most  remark- 
able events  of  the  past,  by  bold  and  rapid 
touches  of  a  pencil  both  feeble  and  unskil- 
ful, the  final  scene  of  the  picture  discloses 
the  present  age  in  peaceful  possession  of 
the  broad  alluvial  valleys  of  this  virgin 
and  unbroken  country.  Its  inhabitants, 
yet  scanty,  are  surrounded  with  all  the 
accumulations  of  scientific  knowledge  to 
aid  in  developing  its  resources.  What  a 
responsibility  must  rest  on  a  community* 


50  LECTURE. 

fully  awakened  to  the  providential  charac- 
ter of  their  destiny!  Cast  your  eye  over 
the  physical  geography  of  the  western  slope 
of  the  North  American  continent,  and  be- 
hold this  comely  region  of  the  earth.  God, 
in  his  government  of  the  great  physical 
and  moral  affairs  of  the  globe,  has  reserved 
it  until  the  present  age,  to  give  a  fresh  and 
more  vigorous  impulse  to  the  development 
of  human  society.  It  holds  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  ancient  nations  and  to  old 
forms  of  civilization,  as  (Joes  the  modern 
geological  age  to  ?ill  that  preceded  it.  It 
is  the  last  stratum  overlying  all  the  rest,  a 
sort  of  compound  accumulation  of  all  pre- 
vious deposits,  from  which  shall  spring  the 
most  diversified  abundance,  and  where  the 
richest  flowers  and  fruits  shall  flourish  with 
perennial  increase.  The  old  nations  lie 
buried  thousands  of  years  deep  below  us. 
The  primeval  Asiatic  growths  of  intelli- 
*  gence  are  so  profound  and  ancient,  that,  like 


LECTURE.  51 

the  slate-beds  and  limestones  of  the  primi- 
tive seas,  the  mere  rudiments  of  life   are 
discovered   by  only   a   doubtful   tradition. 
The  misty  spectres  of  old  Egyptian  dynas- 
ties,—  with   their  pyramids,  temples,  and 
sphinxes,  —  sucking   the    lifeblood   of  the 
Hebrew  tribes  and  of  the  common  people, 
stoeep  before  us  and  pass  away,  like  the 
gluttonous  races  of  the  palaeozoic  ages.     A 
succeeding   epoch  brings  forth  new  forms 
of  intelligence ;  and  Greece  —  so  beautiful 
and  magnificent  —  so  rich  in  letters,  phi- 
losophy, and  the   fine  arts  —  instinctively 
rises  before   the   mind,  as  an   emblem   of 
the  verdant   and  prolific  creations   which 
adorned  the  earth  during  the  carboniferous 
era.     Stored  away  in  the  dark  abysses  of 
revolutionary   time,  —  covered   up   by  the 
fragmentary  and  refuse  materials  of  a  hun- 
dred generations,  are   those  wonderful  re- 
mains of  Homer,  Plato,  Socrates,  Euclid, 
Hippocrates,  Xenophon,  and  scores  of  other 


52  LECTURE. 

immortal  men,  whose  resplendent  genius 
warms  and  illuminates  these  later  times. 

A  new  social  fabric  arose  over  the  de- 
caying institutions  of  the  Peloponnesus; 
and  Rome,  with  her  ponderous  armies 
and  devouring  ambition,  overwhelmed  the 
world,  playing  the  part  of  a  secondary 
age,  swarming  with  monsters  alike  distin- 
guished for  their  cold  blood  and  for  their 
ferocity.  On  the  ruins  of  this  imperfect 
civilization  sprang  other  developments  of 
society,  improved  and  embellished  by  the 
addition  of  the  Christian  element,  and  a 
spirit  of  scientific  inquiry.  This  was  a 
sort  of  tertiary  age  in  the  history  of  the 
moral  world,  when  the  old  Spanish  monar- 
chy, the  French  empire,  and  British  sway, 
were  represented  by  the  paleotherii,  me- 
gatherii,  and  mastodons ;  the  creation  and 
destruction  of  whose  huge  forms  were 
to  prepare  the  earth  for  the  great  Ameri- 
can epoch,  —  the  last  stratum  in  the  sue- 


LECTURE.  53 

cessive  developments  of  human  society. 
The  mingling  of  the  culture  of  decayed 
nations  —  the  Oriental,  Egyptian,  Grecian, 
Roman,  and  Saracenic  —  with  the  Christian 
and  scientific  elements  of  the  modern  era, 
constitutes  that  vast  store  of  intelligence 
and  wisdom,  —  that  rich  subsoil  from  which 
are  springing  the  thousand  inventions  and 
intellectual  enterprises  which  adorn  the  hu- 
man character,  as  the  flowers  and  fruits 
adorn  the  present  surface  of  the  earth. 
This  favored  land  of  our  adoption  is  now 
in  a  state  of  partial  submersion  by  the  last 
great  moral  deluge.  The  richest  alluvium 
is  fast  settling  from  the  turbid  waters  that 
have  rushed  over  it  with  such  astonishing 
impetuosity ;  and  an  intellectual  soil  will 
soon  be  formed,  whose  vigor  and  fertility 
will  well  compare  with  the  agricultural 
strength  of  its  prolific  valley-bottoms.  The 
last  social  stratum  is  forming  from  the 
accumulating  detritus  of  all  past  races,  and 


54  LECTURE. 

of  all  the  kingdoms  of  nature ;  and  from 
this  shall  spring  the  most  elaborate  and 
abundant  growths  of  intellectual  and  moral 
enterprise. 

As  firm  as  are  the  sinews  of  its  strength, 
California  is  still  but  a  nursling,  —  and  a 
mere  godchild  at  that,  hugged  in  the  self- 
ish laps,  and  surfeited  with  the  sickening 
nutriment,  of  all  the  communities  of  the 
earth.  Within  its  own  bosom  exist  the 
permanent  and  inexhaustible  elements  of 
independence,  and  of  every  species  of  great- 
ness. All  its  diversified  aspects  invite  in- 
dustry and  intelligence  to  lay  open  its 
boundless  stores  of  wealth.  The  very  act 
of  decomposing  the  rock,  to  prepare  the 
foundation  of  a  productive  soil,  has  dis- 
tributed a  precious  medium  of  commercial 
intercourse  throughout  the  surface  of  the 
highlands  and  the  beds  of  the  streams,  and 
exposed  it  to  the  easy  access  of  toil,  as  a 
stimulus  to  all  sorts  of  enterprise.  The 


LECTURE.  55 

broad  and  prolific  valleys  of  the  land  have 
gone  through  their  pastoral  epoch,  and 
their  deep  and  rich  alluvial  bottoms  are 
inviting  enlightened  husbandry  to  unfold 
their  exhaustless  fertility.  No  dense  for- 
ests cover  the  earth,  to  retard  the  hand  of 
the  ploughman;  but  an  open -and  bound- 
less fallow  allures  him  to  turn  its  surface, 
and  to  plant  a  hundred  golden  hopes  with 
every  grain  of  golden  seed.  The  moun- 
tains send  up  cedars  so  many  fathoms 
high,  as  to  remind  us  of  the  gigantic  pro- 
ductions of  the  ancient  ages ;  while  the 
valleys  give  nourishment  to  roots,  cereals, 
and  succulent  vines,  whose  yields  would 
appear  fabulous,  did  we  not  possess  sub- 
stantial evidence  of  their  extraordinary 
growth  and  plenteousness.  A  million  flow- 
ers announce  with  a  million  voices  —  from 
the  earth  and  from  the  heavens  —  that  the 
fulness  of  time  has  arrived,  when  the  hu- 
man soul  shall  accept  the  silent  and  sweet* 


56  LECTURE. 

revelations  of  nature,  and  vanish  from  the 
sunlight  with  the  profound  conviction  that 
mortal  life  is  only  a  bud  of  inspiration, 
created  to  blossom  in  the  elysian  gardens 
of  immortality.  From  the  broad  declivities 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  to  the  rock-bound 
shores  of  the  neighboring  ocean,  and  from 
the  icy  summits  of  the  Siskiyous  to  the 
sunny  vales  of  the  vine-clad  South,  the 
genii  of  rural  wealth  lift  their  smiling  faces 
from  the  soil,  at  the  magic  touch  of  the 
ploughshare  and  reaping-hook,  and,  ming- 
ling their  hymns  with  the  inundations  of 
the  Sacramento,  proclaim  that  lawgiver 
the  greatest  benefactor  to  the  common- 
wealth, who  advocates  the  most  liberal 
enactments  for  founding  agricultural  insti- 
tutions, for  stimulating  agricultural  enter- 
prises, and  tilling  the  barns  of  the  people 
with  overflowing  abundance. 

In  reaching,  at  last,  the  closing  view  of 
this  hasty  and  imperfect  tableau,  we  find 


LECTURE.  57 

ourselves  standing  on  the  summit  of  the 
ages ;  and  the  immense  vista  of  the  past, 
filled  with  a  succession  of  startling  events, 
gradually  receding  before  our  eye,  till  all  is 
lost  in  the  profoundest  night  of  chaotic 
antiquity.  From  the  first  dawn  of  a  creative 
force,  we  behold,  little  by  little,  the  unfold- 
ing of  a  scheme,  at  first  indefinite  in  its 
object,  but  at  last  so  clearly  revealed,  that 
we  marvel  at  the  amount  of  power,  and  at 
the  infinitude  of  time,  expended  to  lay  down 
the  agricultural  and  horticultural  founda- 
tions of  the  earth.  The  great  and  unmis- 
takable fact  bursts  upon  us,  that  the  time 
occupied  —  however  incalculable  and  infin- 
ite its  duration  —  was  especially  spent  for 
purposes  connected  with  the  intellectual 
races.  The  whole  scheme  was  planned 
and  developed  to  prepare  the  earth  for 
man.  The  inference  is  as  positive  as  the 
duration  of  organic  life  is  infinite  and  in- 
calculable, that  the  creation  of  man  is  the 


58  LECTURE. 

last  organic  act  intended  by  the  Creator, 
and  that  his  existence  shall  be  without 
end,  and  his  intellectual  development  eter- 
nally progressive.  The  history  of  the  earth 
proves  the  truth  of  this  declaration.  For, 
now,  nothing  is  wanting  to  stimulate  the 
industry  or  the  faculties  of  man.  All  past 
organic  creations  have  stored  the  earth 
with  their  riches ;  and  as  human  wisdom 
gathers  together  merchandise  of  food,  rai- 
ment, and  fuel,  for  long  and  adventurous 
expeditions,  so  the  Almighty  has  consoli- 
dated stratum  over  stratum,  of  rich  mate- 
rials, which  dissolve  at  even  the  touch  of  a 
dewdrop,  and  transform  their  solid  shapes 
into  esculent  roots,  herbs,  and  fruits.  The 
economy  of  nature  is  such  that  no  losses 
ensue  to  the  surface  of  the  earth.  All  that 
springs  from  it  returns  to  enrich  it  still 
more.  The  preparatory  ages  have  long 
since  past.  Even  society  has  emerged 
from  its  infantile  and  preparatory  stages ; 


LECTURE.  59 

and  science  so  completely  controls  modern 
civilization,  that  the  human  faculties  have 
no  rest,  and  seek  none,  short  of  perfection. 
That  perfection,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
can  never  be  reached;  and  therefore  human 
progress  becomes  eternal.  And  as  beauti- 
ful trees  not  only  adorn  the  landscape, 
affording  shade  and  nutriment  to  roaming 
herds,  but  mingle  their  decomposing  sub- 
stance with  the  earth,  to  stimulate  the 
growth  of  new  and  more  refined  forms  of 
organic  being ;  so,  not  only  do  the  lives  of 
great  and  good  men  impart  light  and 
beauty  to  the  social  state,  but  their  death 
also  awakens  fresh  developments  of  intel- 
ligence and  virtue.  Thus,  all  nature  tends 
to  refinement ;  and,  though  the  processes 
of  accomplishing  its  ends  are  silent,  they 
are  nevertheless  positive ;  and  they  appear 
slow  because  DURATION  is  the  broad  stage 
on  which  man  is  to  act  his  part,  and  to 
consummate  his  destiny. 


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